~ Life is a Journey. A Journey shaped by our Dreams. Our Dreams are inspired by our Imagination.

Donor Orphanage

Today I can across an article, “Reasons Not to be an Organ Donor” by Jany Gonzales. This article gave me some inspiration to write this short story:

This story is about a boy name Tom. Tom is an orphan. At a young age, because of an incident that cause Tom to lose most of his sense of sight, his parents chose to abandon him at an orphanage, Donor Orphanage.

At Donor Orphanage, many children are left behind by their parents because of a disability. What kind of child left behind in an orphanage would not be heartbroken and depressed? The thought of their own mother abandoning them. The thought of waiting behind bars hoping someone may come to free themselves. “Orphanages are a sad place.”

However, at Donor Orphanage is a Headmistress, Sister Elisa. Sister Elisa never got married, but she has all the children in the world. Every member of Donor Orphanage is her child. Children would still want to run away. Whether it is to find their own family or to run from the reality that they have been abandoned. Sister Elisa would often comfort the children by telling them that they are a gift, not a burden. “The Lord gave you the opportunity to live in this world, so do your best. Only you can choose how you want to be. Not your parents, not Sister Elisa, and not even the Lord,” is what Sister Elisa tells her children.

Because Tom is limited by his sense of sight, he always felt lesser than the other children.

Until one day Sister Elisa told Tom, “Do you know why Donor Orphanage is called Donor Orphanage?”

“No, I don’t. And I don’t care,” Tom said at the time.

“Well, Donor Orphanage is called Donor Orphanage because everything we have is donated. Do you know what donation means, Tom?”

“It means throwing something away that you do not want anymore!”

“No Tom, a donation is a contribution out of an act of kindness. A donation is giving something that you believe would be useful and helpful to someone else in need of it. You, and all your brothers and sisters here are like a donation. Here to keep old Sister Elisa company, and to keep each other company. Think about it, Tom. Who could’ve helped your fellow brothers and sisters as much as you do? Who would’ve been as open and caring as your fellow brothers and sisters to you?”

At the time, Tom didn’t really understand what Sister Elisa meant. But throughout the years in Donor Orphanage, Tom came to understand Sister Elisa’s kindness. His brothers and sisters, including himself, may have been abandoned by their parents. But their abandonment lead to their place at Donor Orphanage. At Donor Orphanage, they found each other. They care for each other. And love each other.

Many years later, came one day. “Finally, the day came. The day came when Sister Elisa had to return.”

Tom’s thoughts of what happened when Sister Elisa left:

“On April 27th of that year, Sister Elisa closed her eyes and never opened them again. She left with a smile. I can still remember when the light shined through the stained glass hitting her body. It was as if the light was Angels in disguise to take her and donate her to another world.”

“A week before her burial, we received many phone calls regarding donations to our Orphanage. Among the things that were being donated to us, organs were being donated as well. Someone has decided to donate their Cornea and Ocular Tissue, and it was a match for me! This person also donated a pair of kidneys, a set of lungs, a heart, a liver, the pancreas, and small intestines. I did not know that blood vessels, bones, cartilage, connective tissue, heart valves, and skin could be donated as well!”

During Sister Elisa’s Funeral, Tom was able to watch the whole ceremony clearly. Some brothers and sisters could not attend because of their organ transplant surgeries and recoveries. Tom finally understood what Sister Elisa meant when she said everything at Donor Orphanage was donated…

The End.

[In reality, Organ Donations cannot be specified to be donated to a specific organization or even a certain person. Organ donations need to be a match for the person. The waiting list gets longer and longer every year; a new name is added every 10 minutes. Despite 90% of Americans support the idea of Organ Donation, only 30% of people actually become one.]

“I would like to say that if the 90% of supporters were all Organ Donors, then more people in our society will be able to live on. People would not need to donate their children to orphanages or foster care because of the fear that their child would not be able to live. Even the children in orphanages and foster care, or at home with their parents who are struggling everyday waiting for someone to come save their life, they can also live in this world more peacefully knowing that someone can and will change their lives.”

At first, I thought the article was going to tell me why I shouldn’t be an organ donor. But as I read on, it was actually an article tell us why we should be an organ donor.

References of statistical data were made from the article “Reasons Not to be an Organ Donor.”

Link to the Article: http://theodysseyonline.com/uni-rochester/reasons-organ-donor/372449

Link to Featured Image for this blog post: http://clubs.arizona.edu/~uaod/organ%20donor%20image.JPG

Thank you for reading! 🙂
And don’t forget, Keep on DayDreaming! ❤
(Because you never know when the inspiration decides to come and find you.)